It's been a long time in coming, but it's finally here: the first, real Mockingjay - Part 2 teaser trailer. After three movies, four years and considerable franchise fatigue, I have to give credit where credit is due. It's a doozy. Watch it here:
I've made it pretty clear in the past that Mockingjay was easily my least favorite of the novels. In fact, the second half of it - the half that the latest movie is adapted from - is hands down the most offensively bad of all. What should have been an epic finale to well-spun narrative was a supreme letdown: forgetting on every page who the character of Katniss actually was and what made her such an endearing figure to begin with.
I'm still not entirely sure how they managed it, but the storming of the Capitol - the climax of the entire series - bordered on boring on every page. The unwarranted romance between Katniss and Peeta was constantly shoved down our collective throats and character deaths, although tragic, were something less than memorable. Despite loving Catching Fire, I have willfully stuck with rereading The Hunger Games by itself solely because of the disappointing note that the series ultimately ends on.
Like Mockingjay - Part 1, however, everything in the movie's marketing suggests that it's going to be one Hell of a ride: an inevitable improvement on its source material (which, sadly, probably isn't all that hard to do). The teaser plays up the action sequences that were perplexingly downplayed in the novel and downplays the romantic angst that was omnipresent in the original narrative.
Jennifer Lawrence looks as fantastic as Katniss as she ever has (despite having to recite Suzanne Collins' clunky dialog). Francis Lawrence's scope appears to be as grandiose as it was in Part 1 and the trailer hits all of the right cues that clue us in on the fact that characters (and their sacrifices) will not be taken as lightly as they were the first time around. In short, Mockingjay - Part 2 looks every bit as excellent of a story as the novel should have been, and that's something to get excited about.
So while I'm still admittedly nervous about the direction of the final film in the increasingly inaccurately named Hunger Games Trilogy, I do have grounds for cautious optimism. Francis Lawrence is a smart guy and seems to have a good grasp on what scenes from the books can be dropped, which can be salvaged and what new ones were needed in the first place. I have faith that he - and the film's absolutely resplendent cast - can drive the series home with gusto.
So what did you think of Mockingjay? Share your thoughts in the comment section below.
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It's been a long time in coming, but our first, substantive look at CBS' new Supergirl series is finally here. And, truth be told, I'm not 100% sure what to think about it. In some ways, I'm glad that it's an upgrade from the Smallville clone that I feared it could be, but the final product seems a lot... sitcommier than I would have pegged it as. Check it out for yourself here:
It basically looks like what would happen if Kara Zor-El worked for Meryl Streep in The Devil Wears Prada. That's not a judgment, mind you, just the general impression that this extended trailer leaves. I actually liked the movie and CBS seems to have nailed the franchise's tone perfectly: light, sunny and generally upbeat. This is something that her cousin could benefit from on the big screen.
What I found especially interesting about this particular series is that it seems to desperately want to be a part of the nascent DCCU. Aside from actually being in color, it takes most of its visual cues from Snyder's movies. Kara's modern costume and dark coloration seems to be right out of Man of Steel. Additionally, the visuals of Krypton, snippets of Jesus "Superman" Christ and the emphasis of her costume's "S" as her family's crest all hit the exact same notes as Warner Brothers' movies.
The internet, however, doesn't seem to share my cautious optimism. Nolan's Dark Knight trilogy has seemingly set the golden standard for what people should expect from DC adaptations. Arrowkept things dark and somber. Man of Steel bullheadedly adopted a gritty, Batman aesthetic and Dawn of Justice looks like it's going to be more of the same.
People can't seem to get over the fact that Supergirl feels like, well, Supergirl. It's bright and cheery and optimistic. It's fun and girly and more of a romantic comedy with a little bit of action thrown in than a somber, action-heavy drama.
This isn't Batmanand isn't trying to be. And you know what? That's okay. That's what Supergirl is. That's what Marvel's long since come to terms with: every franchise should be allowed to be its own thing. If it wants to be a romantic comedy about Superman's younger cousin, then that's exactly what CBS should let it be, "grim 'n' gritty" be damned.
I'm actually pretty excited about this series and am going to be tuning into it just as soon as I'm able to. Hopefully this series' success will show Warner Bros that not everything has to be so God damned bleak all off the time. Things can be light and funny and still be awesome.
So what are your thoughts about the new Supergirl series? Will you be tuning its premiere episode? Share your thoughts in the comment section below.
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There's been a lot of questioning looks being cast Fantastic 4's way in the last couple of months. The unduly young cast, the excessively grim tone and revelations that Doctor Doom isn't a scientist and a diplomat, but a blogger, all contributed to everybody's well-founded concerns about the direction that Fox has chosen to take with the franchise. It doesn't even look like it's going to tie in with their X-Men series, which was such an obvious tie-in that I'm shocked how they could have missed it. They've just released the movie's second trailer, which you can check out here:
When all is said and done, however, this trailer works for me. The cast is still way too baby-faced for my tastes and the tone is considerably darker than Marvel's premiere superhero team calls for, but it none-the-less works. It's not quite as dark or heavy-handed as the first trailer was, which gives me hope that they've lightened things up (at least a little bit) from what they've been marketing it as until now.
We also get to see the team's superpowers in action for the first time, and they look considerably better than their previous incarnations. Reed's stretching powers, Johnny's pyrokinesis, Grimm's elemental form and Sue's invisibility and force field projections all look awesome, and that's something that a Fantastic Four movie hasn't been able to say before. And then there's Doom.
Forget everything that you've heard about Doom until now. Doctor Doom looks awesome in this trailer. Every version of the character since the 60's has looked varying degrees of stupid: chunky, ill-fitting metal armor that's ill-suited to conveying emotion.
The new version of the character looks less like The Man in the Iron Mask and more like some kind of techno-organic organism that simply is metallic the same way that we're made of flesh. I can't say if we're still getting the inane "blogger turned supervillain" story that's been teased until now or if he'll factor in as a native inhabitant of the dimension that the team crossed into to get their powers, but I'm sure he'll turn out to be better than Julian McMahon
That's another thing that I can't help but get excited about. I've always been a sucker for alternate dimensions, and this plays perfectly into that interest for me. Is Doom the ruler (maybe sole survivor) from the dimension in question? Does he simply tag along and get powered up the same way that the Fantastic Four did? Is one of the dimensions that they'll eventually sneak off to the X-Men Cinematic Universe? The possibilities are beyond infinite, which isn't a bad way to start off a series.
I still have my reservations about the new movie, but the worst of my fears have been stemmed for now. I'm slightly more eager to see this than I was before, and at this point I'll take every ounce of excitement that I can get. Hopefully the movie itself will be better still.
So what are your thoughts about the new Fantastic Four trailer? Share your thoughts in the comment section below.
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With everything awesome coming out of the Hollywood marketing machine in recent weeks, it's easy enough to forget that Jurassic World is still a thing. And that's really more the shame, because it actually looks really good. That goes double for the new trailer that came out over the weekend, which you can see here:
So we're starting to get a better idea of what we're up against as all of the pieces start coming together. Growing concerned over public ennui and falling park attendance, the owners of Jurassic Park pushed for producing genetically modified hybrid dinosaurs that never existed in nature in any form. It's bigger than a T-Rex, smarter than a Raptor and hunts purely for sport.
The movie seems to be doing everything it can to make us forget about the last two movies in the franchise, and I'm more than happy to chomp at the bit. BD Wong's back in his old role and Star Lord Chris Pratt's character looks to be about as much immature fun as her was in Guardians of the Galaxy. And that's not even mentioning how awesome it's going to be to finally see a functional, tourist-populated Park in the franchise.
While the trailer doesn't spoil too much of the movie (unlike some movies that I could mention), I do feel like it gives away a few too many set pieces. We see the destruction of the Pterodactyl habitat that results on them picking off tourists from the first trailer. We see more trained raptor action and theme park exhibits. It connects just enough narrative dots for us that I would have preferred to remain in the dark about for a while longer (even if nothing that they revealed was ever too much).
I have to admit that the trailer has me pretty stoked about the movie, which ultimately the reason why they make these in the first place. They have a great cast (something old, something new), great effects and a story that I can get well and truly excited about. Here's to hoping that the movie will live up to its promise.
So are you looking forward to seeing Jurassic World in theaters? Share your thoughts in the comment section below.
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Batman vs Superman was always going to be a troublesome movie for me. While I actually loved Man of Steel (more than I thought I ever would love a Superman movie), everything about Dawn of Justice struck me as trying to incessantly one-up Marvel with an almost willful insistence that they don't need to build up to this mini-Justice League the same way that Marvel had to build up its cinematic universe.
Superman shrugged.
I'm not saying that there's not something to the idea of hitting the ground running. I'm not saying that they necessarily had to construct the DCCU brick by brick. I'm just saying that the dark, heavy-handed tone of the movie doesn't feel earned.
My biggest grip with Man of Steel was with its Dark Knight aesthetic. For however interesting they were able to make Superman and however fantastic the action was, it never once felt like I was watching a Superman movie. And with Dawn of Justice's trailer, it still doesn't feel that way. Check it out here:
It's almost like somebody at DC figured that Man of Steel wasn't nearly dark and gritty enough, and that anything with Batman in it necessarily had to raise the bar in that respect. Seriously, this feels more like Injustice than what's supposed to be a pretty straightforward take on mainstream DC continuity.
Think about it. The omnipresent nocturnal setting, the Atlas-like Superman statue with "False God" graffitied on its chest. The timely voice over reminding us that "absolute power corrupts absolutely." Then there's this strangely martial-looking shot:
Hail Hydra.
This isn't really the take on the subject that I was hoping for. Everything coming out its production talked about Superman being a controversial character, not about him basically being the Superman from Red Son. I was expecting a bit more leveled approach when it came to the question of superheroic ethics than Snyder's apparent belief that "Devil's don't come from Hell beneath us, they come from the sky" (actual voice-over dialog from the trailer!).
Unsurprisingly, Batman is the best part of the trailer. Although we really don't see him in his iconic suit, the unworn costume looks fantastic: maybe the best version of it that we've seen on screen so far. And remember, chasing Nolan's Dark Knight trilogy, that's actually saying something.
Okay, this is actually pretty sweet.
Even though he's only given only one inane, voice-modified line of dialog, Ben Affleck absolute sells himself as Bruce Wayne. His brooding scowl is absolutely dead on. Although much has already been made of Batman's chunky, Lego-like armor already, I can't say that it bothered me all that much. It's obviously battle armor and obviously meant to be as Batman as possible and is a pretty logical and cool-looking progression from previous Batman augmentations.
Jeremy Irons voice-over as Alfred is like a hard-edged take on Michael Caine's Alfred. It's pretty much what I would have expected from Sean Pertwee reciting Caine's "some men just want to watch the world burn" speech from The Dark Knight, and it's unquestionably awesome.
Batfleck
If the movie - God forbid the entire DCCU - actually turns out how they're selling it in this trailer, I can't say that I'll be excited for anything that's not Batman branded from the start (The Suicide Squad, a Batman solo movie, a Nightwing movie, etc...). It's just such an unrelentingly grim, mono-tonal take on the DC universe, with seemingly no room for variation between its component franchises.
Not everything's supposed to look, sound and feel like Batman. Sure, Snyder might of Batman down to a T, but that didn't help him in Man of Steel and that won't help him with any of the DCCU's future projects.
Darkness! No parents! Continued darkness! More darkness! Get it?
So what do you think about the Batman vs Superman teaser trailer? Are you still excited to see the movie? Share your thoughts in the comment section below.
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It's amazing how everything that I want out of a trailer - or at least a trailer for the latest movie in an established franchise - can usually be taken care of in about 90 seconds. The Force Awakens is no exception. We got iconic callbacks to the original trilogy, a measured look some fan favorite characters and a few quick action clips to round things out. We were already sold on the idea of another Star Wars, all this did was remind us of why.
After seeing the trailer, I'm convinced more than ever that The Force Awakens is going to be a loose adaptation of Heir to the Empire. Sure, Carrie Fischer's a bit too old to be pregnant, so that particular subplot's out of the running. And sure, it's been a bit too long since Return of the Jedi for Luke to be struggling with the nuts and bolts of reestablishing the Jedi Order, let alone Obiwan becoming "one with the Force" (his ghost passing on to whatever afterlife awaits him).
Strip away the subplots and time frame, and you're left with a perfectly viable story for a latter-day Star Wars. After being forced into hiding at the far end of the Galaxy, the Imperial Remnant, led by master strategist Grand Admiral Thawn, resurfaces to bring the rest of the Galaxy into the Imperial fold. His secret weapon is the deranged clone of a long-dead Jedi Master, whose powers perfectly compliment his own martial prowess.
The big question that the trailer leaves us with is who Luke is talking to in his dramatic voice over. It's clearly somebody gifted in the Force, which leaves us with several possibilities to choose from. Given all of the film's apparent ties to Heir to the Empire, it very well could be Mara Jade - "the Emperor's Hand" - who was driven from a position of power and influence within the Empire to the dregs of the Galaxy after the Emperor's death. This may be a glimpse into one of his many confrontations with Jade over the course of the trilogy, in which he urges her to abandon her hatred and lust for vengeance.
Given all the time that's elapsed since Return of the Jedi, however, he could be talking to one of the Solo twins. It can't be glossed over just how family-oriented Luke's words were: "the Force is strong in my family. My father has it. I have it. My sister has it. You have that power too." And given how prominently the children factor into the later Star Wars novels, having the older generation pass the torch to the younger one is ripe with cinematic and franchise possibilities.
Jaina Solo - known as "the sword of the Jedi" for her prowess in battle - features prominently in many of the Expanded Universe novels. The girl that keeps cropping up in these teaser trailers (see above image) fits the bill pretty well. She's the right age, wearing the appropriate Jedi-styled tunic and seems to be holding her own in all the action.
Jacen Solo is a grimmer matter entirely, as he eventually becomes Darth Caedus. Considering how a large part of the Thawn narrative was Master C'baoth trying to lure Luke and the newborn Solo twins to the dark side, it would be a perfectly natural progression to pass off that portion of the narrative to Jacen: streamlining his fall to the dark side by joining it with C'baoth's scheming. The film, then, could feature the lure of C'baoth's teachings compared to the harder moral path of a Jedi.
The final option is, of course, Ben Skywalker: Luke and Mara's Jedi son. While he also features prominently in the Legacy era novels, and would fit into the implicit blood ties of Luke's speech, he's a far less likely candidate. For him to work, either Mara is already a part of the Star Wars narrative at this time of the movie or Ben is simply too young to factor into the movie all that much.
It's amazing how, even after only 90-odd seconds of footage, it's immediately obvious that this is a J.J. Abrams movie. While we weren't subjected to the excessive lens flair he seems so fond of, the opening sequence is an extreme wide angle tracking shot of a vehicle speeding across the desert. It starts to pass a downed X-Wing in the foreground before we see an even more impressive Imperial Star Destroyer looming behind it in the background.
This immediately calls to mind the Kirk's arrival to the spaceport to begin his Starfleet training. He races across a dirt road on his bike - fields in the foreground, Starfleet buildings in the background - before coming up to the docks looming in front of him. Just compare the above image with the following:
Needless to say, I'm stoked for this movie. It has a proven sci-fi director who has not only brought the original trilogy's cast back into the fold for another round, but has made a point to do as much in-camera as possible: physical sets, makeup and puppetry to bring the aliens to life, even the new R2 droid from the first trailer is a physical prop. They have so far done everything right, and I can promise you that I'll be the first one in line to see this.
So what did you think of the new Force Awakens teaser trailer? Share your thoughts in the comment section below.
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I've mentioned before how, after getting hooked by a new movie's trailer, I try to avoid everything else related to the movie until I actually see it in theaters. It keeps any potential spoilers to a minimum and prevents me from being Tomorrowlanded with too much information about a movie I was already planning to see. And although Terminator Genisys let some major cats out of the bag that might have better been kept under wraps for the next month and a half, I can't really say that I didn't love every second of it. Check it out here:
So, yeah. That happened. In a desperate bid for survival, John Connor turns traitor to humanity: converted into a next gen, T-1000-esque cyborg and going back in time to destroy his own lineage (presumably, paradoxically, erasing himself from existence).
Like I mentioned earlier, this is the kind of world-shaking plot twist that I would have preferred to not have seen going into the movie. I would have much preferred being caught with my pants down in the theater than walking in knowing what exactly went wonky in the timeline to screw everything up.
But Jesus, if this doesn't change everything that you ever thought about the franchise. John Connor - the savior of mankind - humanity's champion against the tyranny of the machines, has finally turned on everything he swore to protect his entire life. It's a dark twist on one of cinema's most iconic action heroes, and yet doesn't feel like the rage-quitting betrayal that it could have been. After watching this trailer, I'm just as - if not more - stoked about the movie than when I went into it.
This is everything that I've been hoping for since I saw the first trailer: a temporal ouroboros feeding endlessly off of its own increasingly delineating timeline. With every pass the franchise makes at sending a Terminator back to either save or murder John Connor, it sends the course of history increasingly out of whack until it becomes hopelessly unrecognizable. It's finally become the creature that it always had the potential to be: essentially James Cameron's Madoka.
This is undoubtedly not quite what they were going for. Sure, it's obviously using time travel to horrifically twist its own timeline around on itself, but let's be realistic here. It's trying to reset its franchise the same way that X-Men: First Class did: with a splashy, crowd-pleasing blockbuster that untangles its decades old continuity to make way for future sequels. The fact that it's not only awesome, but exactly what I've always wanted to see out of the franchise, is ultimately symptomatic of its blockbuster status.
Still, you won't find me complaining about this turn of events. I'll be the first in line to see this blockbuster franchise find its footing again. And for the love of sci-fi, I hope that you're right there in line with me.
So are you excited about the spoilers in the new Terminator Genysis trailer? Share your thoughts in the comment section below.
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As I already mentioned yesterday, with Age of Ultron well in-hand, it's Ant-Man's turn for a Marvel-branded marketing push. And after introducing us to Yellowjacket, and teasing us along with a months old teaser trailer, we finally have our first full-length trailer for the movie. Check it out here:
While the first trailer was fine and all, the overwhelming consensus on it was that it was far too generic. It was advertising itself as another fatalistic-sounding, "all hope riding on one man" narrative in a world where there's clearly more than just some broken down con in a super suit to call upon in dire straits. It didn't help anything that Paul Rudd is a pretty samey-looking, generically handsome leading man.
The thing is, though, that that was the teaser trailer. All it was meant to do was to get our attention with a first abbreviated look into the movie. And regardless of its uniqueness, it did exactly what it set out to do. Ant-Man's costume is probably the coolest bit of cinematic hardware since the Iron Man suit, the shrinking effects are extremely convincing and him riding off into battle on a flying Ant was absurdly awesome.
For everything that the first trailer did "wrong," the full-length version does right. Michael Douglas doesn't proselytize from on high about how Paul Rudd was fatalistically destined to become the Ant-Man. Instead, he's a socially conscious scientist in desperate need of a thief. Paul Rudd just happens to be the right scum bag in the right place at the right time.
We also get more of a plot to go along with our technical sequences. Yes, we see more shrinking, more ant-based powers and even a little bit of combat, but we also get to the nuts and bolts of what's going on. It appears that Hank Pym, fearful of the implications of wide-spread superpowers, enlists good-natured thief Scott Lang to steal the technology in question, which in turn brings down the wrath of Darren Cross (Yellowjacket).
The trailer also confirms that Ant-Man's going to be an action-comedy along the lines of Iron Man and Guardians of the Galaxy. Not only do we see more digs into the stupidity of the name Ant-Man, but we also see some of the gag potential of pint-sized heroes and villains. The trailer's most memorable sequence features a battle between Ant-Man and Yellowjacket in a little girl's room. The two fight epically atop the train before Yellowjacket is caught on the tracks and run over by it.
I really do think that this is a movie that's going to sneak up on people. The franchise's lower profile outside of the comic world, its sheltered position behind Age of Ultron and the absolute potential to own its silly premise is going to take a lot of people by surprise. If this new trailer is any indication of what we can expect from the movie, I'm on board with it.
So what are you hoping to see in Ant-Man? Share your thoughts in the comment section below.
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I haven't been shy around here about my love of horror movies nor how highly I've been anticipating Sinister 2. It was unquestionably the best horror movie to come out in 2012 and arguably the best to come out of the 21st Century so far. And now that we've gotten our first teaser trailer for the movie - 17 uninterrupted seconds of horrific bliss - I'm beginning to feel that my faith in it has been well-founded. Check it out here:
Except for a few recent slip-ups, Blumhouse Productions has been the absolute pinnacle of 21st Century horror. Sinister was a perfect example of this: a tersely structured film with a somewhat original premise, whose scares were based more on an understanding of old-school suspense than on jump scares or gore. It featured realistic, likable characters who knew when it was time to cash out and run (even if that turned out in retrospect to be the worst move imaginable).
Remember when the highest praise I could give to a movie was the reaction of a seven-year-old that I was with? The highest praise that I can give Sinister is similarly how it affected those around me when I showed it to them.
Becky and I showed it to a mutual friend of ours who was nearly as big a horror fan as I am. When editing a novel that she was working on, she would have The Shining on the TV in a constant loop for inspiration. Whenever I suggest to my friends that we take in a horror movie, she was the first to say yes. She wasn't a genre lightweight and took the big scares like a champ.
Sinister reduced her to a terrified wreck, to the point that I felt like the world's biggest jerk for showing it to her in the first place. We chased it with Megamind - a happy-go-lucky Dreamworks superhero movie starring Will Farrell - so that she wouldn't go to bed with visions of Baghuul dancing in her head. When we asked her how she slept the next morning, she told us that she was still plagued by horrific nightmares throughout the night and barely slept at all. After that, she gave up horror for well over a year, only recently returning to the genre.
Anything coming off of that kind of a reaction has some pretty big shoes to fill, but Sinister 2 seems to be taking everything in hand. There's a new family moving into a new home that will evidently discover a new set of film reels. Whether they're moving into the same home from the end of the first movie remains to be seen, but it wouldn't surprise me one bit if they were and we saw some familiar faces from the first movie pop in for a visit.
The most interesting addition is the trailer's voice over, which appears to be one of the children glimpsed watching the movie in the attack. Fascinating for me, however, is how those children don't seem to be fed upon by Baghuul like the other children under his influence seemed to be, which leads me to believe that they do not belong to him in the same way that the others are: at least, not yet.
Although I only have a few short seconds to go off of, I think that I might be able to guess at what the movie's plot is, at least in part. What if the parents aren't the ones to find the film reels, but the neighborhood children, playing in an empty home where they definitely don't belong. They fall under Baghuul's influence, and play out his sinister games on a much wider scale: targeting all of their individual families (and the new family moving into the house) just as much as Ethan Hawke's character and his family were tormented in the first movie.
At any rate, it's something to think about, and would make for one Hell of a movie.
So what do you think is going to happen in Sinister 2? Share your thoughts in the comment section below.
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With less than a month to go before the movie hits theaters worldwide, Avengers: Age of Ultron has finally hit the last stage of its marketing push. You would have thought that three trailers, two TV spots and an entire phase worth of movies would have been enough advertising to go off of, but Marvel released its fourth (and invariably final) trailer the other day, much to the delight of its anxious fans. Check the trailer out here:
Obviously by now, the well's run pretty dry for new material that Marvel's willing to let slip before the Age of Ultron's debut. The footage is mostly the same footage that's been recycled, repackaged and redistributed since the first trailer hit. We have a few more seconds tagged on either end of some shots (so that we now know that Cap loses his shield while fighting Ultron on top of a moving bus), but nothing all that different from what we've seen already.
The remarkable thing is, though, that that's pretty much all that they needed to do. The excitement's already there, the demand is already high and people are already more than willing to sit through another similar-looking trailer. It has the same money shots that we've become used to, as well as the same quips and speeches. All it has to do is exist at this point and we'll call its presence a blessing.
That being said, this trailer does focus more on each component member of the team - Iron Man, Hulk, Thor, Captain America, Black Widow, Hawkeye and the twins - than the others, which gravitated more towards plot. But since we've had that already, they decided to remind us exactly why the first movie was as awesome as it was to begin with: because it was four franchise's worth of epic crammed into a few hours worth of movie.
If Age of Ultron somehow fails to be the single best movie of 2015, I'll consider it a supreme disappointment at this point. 2012 was the year of The Avengers. 2014 was the year of The Winter Soldier. There's no movie that I've anticipated more nor is there one with such hard acts to follow: but I'm confident that Marvel will find a way. After all, it always does.
So which of the now four Age of Ultron trailers is your favorite? Share your thoughts in the comment section below.
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With Spectre already in the news and still getting through its primary shooting, my expectations were astoundingly low for the newly released teaser trailer. After all, if they're still shooting the damned thing, how much footage can they really have to string together into a cohesive - if admittedly shortened - trailer? What could it possibly be but a few hurriedly edited together - and ultimately unfinished - action scenes. And then I saw this:
If they released that a month from now and called it a full trailer, I wouldn't have had any issues with that, its brevity aside. It's essentially a methodically paced short film with a real sense of drama, intrigue and surprisingly very little action, and it was awesome!
It appears now that Spectre is the functional successor to the underrated Quantum of Solace. I don't mean that it's going to be another so-called "bad Bond movie," nor that it will have narrative ties to that film more than any other Craig-based Bond film has to by virtue of continuity. It's position as a latter-day Quantum of Solace is owed to being a direct narrative continuation of its immediate predecessor (in this case Skyfall), dealing first-hand with the personal fallout from that previous film's denouement.
You are a kite dancing in a hurricane, Mr. Bond.
It appears that some of Bond's family effects that were recovered from Skyfall point to a conspiratorial agency known only as Spectre, the implication being that Bond's father - and possibly Bond himself - have ties to this organization. And, like Skyfall, this is a much more personal mission for Bond than what we've been used to seeing: turning over the stones of his guarded past rather than reading a mission profile and jetting off to face some nameless criminal.
We of course will get Daniel Craig as Bond, and his new supporting cast of Ralph Fiennes as M and Naomie Harris as Moneypenny. Cristoph Waltz appears to be the Blowfeld stand-in within Spectre: the likely head of the organization and are chief bad guy. We even get our first look at Dave Bautista in a movie since Guardians of the Galaxy, which I'm increasingly excited about the more that I think about it.
Welcome, James. It's been a long time. And finally, here we are.
This trailer pretty much abates any lingering fears that I had about the film's protracted production, inflated budget or twelfth hour rewrites. The cast looks fantastic in their briefly-glimpsed roles, the cinematography is brilliant and the story is fraught with dramatic potential. It is, in short, as fine a looking Bond movie as either Casino Royale or Skyfall. I think that I'm more excited for Spectre at this point than I am even for The Force Awakens, which is an astounding feet when you stop to think about it.
So what was your favorite part of the Spectre teaser trailer? Share your thoughts in the comment section below.
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Attack on Titan is probably the most intensely loved anime to come out in recent years. It's a cross-continental hit that opened many naysayers' eyes to the dramatic possibility of "cartoons." It should come as no surprise that a film adaptation of the series was quickly greenlit in the wake of its success, and we now have our first look into what that movie's going to look like.
I know that 33 seconds isn't all that much to go off of, but it went from an overseas curiosity to a must-see movie for me in that span of time, so clearly they're doing something right. It seems to keep strong fidelity with the series, with virtually everything that we see taking place in the series' first episode. That fidelity with the series suggests that the movie will attempt to cover all twenty-five episodes in its run-time: something that obviously didn't work out for The Last Airbender.
I sincerely hope that the movie opts to end with the events of "Primal Desire: The Struggle of Trost Part 9." It's not too much content for one movie, provides a strong climax to cap it off with and covers the first half of the first season. The second half should provide enough content for its own movie, ensuring that it avoids The Last Airbender's issue of glossing over important plot and character development that helped make the television series so beloved in the first place.
The only other option - cramming 12 1/2 hours of footage into about 90 minutes - mean that cuts need to be made unilaterally across the script. If that's the case, expect to go straight from the events of episode 1 to episode 5 with maybe a training montage in between, then allocate about 30 minutes to the battle of Trost (9 episodes), 30 minutes to the first appearance of the Female Titan and the aftermath of her attack (6 episodes) and maybe as much as another 30 minutes devoted to the climactic showdown against the Female Titan. If this is the direction that they choose to take, expect to see the fallout from the Wall Maria's fall, most of the Scouting Regiment's training, the military's distrust of Erin and Mikasa's back story cut down to virtually nothing.
Hopefully that won't be the case, however. It would remove way too many details from the story and hopelessly rush it through its story. There's no word on when it will see stateside release, but it's scheduled for a summer 2015 release in Japan. We might see some version of it by the end of the year, but we'll most likely have to wait until 2016 to get our Attack on Titan fix taken care of.
So how do you think that the new Attack on Titan movie will handle its story? Share your thoughts in the comment section below.
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When you stop to think about it, though, the timing makes perfect sense. By starting their marketing push so early, they avoid getting lost in the shuffle of a lot of big movies. The only trailers that they're really competing with now are Rogue Nation's, so they aren't likely to be drowned out by Star Wars, Mad Max or Spectrequite yet.
And by premiering their reminder trailer in Insurgent, they're reminding their core demographic that there's a fourth Hunger Games movie on its way later this year: one that will be invariably better than the one that they're about to see in theaters.
Expect to see a full length trailer - or at least a more comprehensive teaser trailer - attached to some of the earlier blockbusters this summer. I wouldn't be surprised if one premiered alongside Age of Ultron, actually. In such a packed year, Lionsgate has to keep people thinking about Katniss & co.
So what are your thoughts on Mockingjay being split into two movies? Share your thoughts in the comment section below.
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Never mind striking while the iron's hot, there's little and less logic to releasing a teaser trailer the day before you release the full trailer. It's called a teaser trailer for a reason: it teases along the audience, gets conversations about the movie going and maintains interest until the full trailer is released. By releasing the new and improved full trailer the next day, there's not much time for people to start talking. Sit on it for a couple weeks, or at least for one. Let the teaser do its job before replacing it with something better.
That being said, this is actually one Hell of a trailer that shoots this movie through the ranks of priority must-sees of 2015. Seriously, check this thing out. It has premise, yes, but so did the trailer. This time however, we get plot. The other had action, true, but this time we get more.
But don't worry about this trailer going too far and Tomorrowlanding us. At 2:20, it's short even for a trailer and doesn't have much room to needlessly spoil us. Those expanded action sequences are just that: longer takes of the action scenes that we've already seen. The added plot it just that: the grand reveal of what's happening in the movie to pair off with what it's about. It's lean, terse and pulsatingly energetic.
It would appear that interests within the United States Government have called on the nation to disband the IMF, calling them "an agency of chaos" that are immune to any countermeasures placed against them. When the so-called "Rogue Nation," an anti-IMF spy agency, is contracted to take out the core IMF members - including Ethan Hunt, Benji Dunn and Luther Stickell - their only remaining course of action is to take down the Rogue Nation themselves.
Judging from the premise and the trailer, this could very well be the best Mission: Impossible yet. The action appears to be as intense as ever, the premise is a perfect example of stakes-raising from the previous franchise entries and the plot ties perfectly into how often at odds the IMF is with other governmental agencies.
So what are your thoughts on the new Mission: Impossible trailer? Will you be lining up to see Rogue Nation when it comes out later this year? Share your thoughts in the comment section below.
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This weekend was a double whammy for the as-of-yet named Mission: Impossible 5. Not only did we find out its real title - Mission: Impossible Rogue Nation - but we got our first teaser trailer for the movie as well. Watch it here.
There's actually a lot going on in this trailer, and all of it looks awesome. We have our first look of the cast in action - which includes Tom Cruise, Jeremy Renner, Simon Pegg and, oddly enough, Alec Baldwin. We also see a few trailer-worthy action sequences - including the aging Hunt hanging onto the outside of a plane in take-off - and the movie's premise.
It appears that this time around, Hunt and his team will be taking on the Rogue Nation: essentially an evil version of the Impossible Missions Force. Although not entirely clear why at this point, the movie is mostly going to be a spy vs spy showdown where each team tries to take the other out.
I have to admit, I'm pretty pumped for this movie now. Although always playing second fiddle to the Bond franchise, the Mission: Impossible series has always delivered astoundingly entertaining action films with a charismatic lead and some truly outrageous stunts. Even though the second film dropped the ball, the next two movies picked it right back up with two of the most insanely memorable outings of the franchise.
I can't wait for the movie's first full trailer to explain the actual plot of the film, since all we have right now to run with is the premise. I expect that we'll be seeing that sooner, as opposed to later. Don't believe me? Just remember how I called Mockingjay - Part 2's teaser trailer on Friday, which hit theaters this weekend.
So which Mission: Impossible movie is your franchise favorite? Share your thoughts in the comments section below.
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I debated whether or not to branch the Trailer Park series out to include TV spots, but I decided that they were close enough to actual trailers to count for my purposes. After all, it ultimately serves the exact same purpose as what you'd see in an actual movie theater, just shorter and reaching a slightly different crowd. Besides, it's been a while since we've had something to talk about with Age of Ultron, right? Right??
The TV spot actually tells us a surprising lot that wasn't addressed in any of the trailers proper. The first thing that stands out is essentially confirmation that the Avengers have been privatized under Stark Industries, although Cap's still calling the shots (smart move, considering that he's the Quatre of the team). This could actually lead to a really interesting power struggle between Stark and Rogers (financial backer and tactical leader) that will undoubtedly act as a precursor to Civil War.
The second thing that it tells us that the trailers didn't - what I had already guessed on my own - is that Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver are added to the Avenger roster. Not just added: planted by Ultron. Remember his line in the third trailer: "we can tear them apart from the inside?" That's what happens when you insert sleeper agents behind enemy lines. I for one couldn't be more excited to see what they'll actually get up to in the movie.
Usually by this point in a film's advertising campaign, I'm sick to death of the ads, trailers and tv spots and just want the movie to come out so that I don't have to be bombarded by them any more. As strange as it is though, I've still yet to reach that saturation point with Age of Ultron. Each new advertising push only makes me more excited about the movie, largely because of how few new things they show in each one. I know going into it I will still be about as unspoiled as I was after watching the first trailer, and that's just something that you don't get nowadays.
So who are you most looking forward to seeing back in action in Age of Ultron? Share your thoughts in the comment section below.
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